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HOUSTON – Three power play goals paced the Houston Aeros to a 5-1 victory over the Grand Rapids Griffins on Saturday night at the Toyota Center.

The Griffins fell to 25-23-6-4 on the season, while the Aeros improved to 28-19-3-9. The two teams will meet again in Houston tomorrow at 6:05 p.m. EDT.

The Aeros got out to a 2-0 lead after capitalizing on their first two power play opportunities. Kris Foucault got Houston on the board with his 12th goal of the season, and fourth in five games against the Griffins, at 9:30 of the first period. At 13:05, Jon DiSalvatore collected a rebound behind the net and banked a shot off Garnet Exelby and Ty Conklin that barely trickled across the Grand Rapids goal line.

DiSalvatore struck again before the end of the opening frame with his 23rd goal of the season, beating Conklin on a breakaway at 15:31 to extend the Houston lead to three.

Houston’s power play continued to give the Griffins difficulty in the second period. Jeff Taffe deposited the Aeros’ third man-advantage goal of the game, capping off a give-and-go with Justin Fontaine at 14:33 to make it 4-0.

The Griffins got on the board after a nice passing play between Landon Ferraro and Tomas Tatar at 7:28. Ferraro found Tatar, who passed up an open shot and fed Ferraro for an easy tap-in and his eighth goal of the season, cutting Houston’s lead to 4-1.

Any hopes of another third period comeback were quickly dashed when Aeros defenseman Mike Montgomery tallied his first goal of the season just 61 seconds after Ferraro’s marker.

Aeros netminder Joe Fallon stopped 29 of 30 shots to earn his first victory of the season, while Conklin made 22 saves for the Griffins.